


The River and the Wind

by TanyaReed



Series: Out of the Darkness [1]
Category: Leverage
Genre: F/M, Slice of Life, companion fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 19:06:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 838
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17730890
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TanyaReed/pseuds/TanyaReed
Summary: A middle of the night glimpse into Sophie and Eliot.  This is a companion piece to my "Out of the Darkness".





	The River and the Wind

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Hughville](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hughville/gifts).



> This snippet has been sitting in the back of my head for a while, and the other day it decided it wanted to come out. Since it's a companion piece to "Out of the Darkness", you probably won't understand it entirely without having read that first. The title is actually a title of a song that one of the lines I used in this reminded me of, though the song is about parting and this story is about coming together. Thanks to Gwenhwyfar1984 and Dusty Diamond for the read through. 
> 
> Hughville: I'm writing again! I was so excited, I wanted to share this with you. :)

It was the murmurs that woke her. Soft, desperate words, too quiet to decipher. Beside her, Eliot moved restlessly and, as Sophie's mind cleared, she realized he was having another nightmare.

He'd once claimed to only sleep about an hour and a half every night. Sophie had since discovered this was a bit of an exaggeration, and the true number was closer to four or five. Those short hours were plagued with nightmares. Sometimes one and sometimes several, and she was always amazed that he managed to get any sleep at all. His subconscious was relentless, and it insisted on reminding him over and over of the things he'd seen and the things he'd done. Sophie couldn't even begin to imagine most of what they were. She didn't want to.

“No,” he said clearly, his whole body flinching.

Sophie propped herself up on her elbow and reached for him. With gentle fingers, she felt for his face, running her hand from his shoulder up his neck and over his cheek. 

“Shh,” she whispered softly. “It's okay.”

After the accident that took her sight, Sophie had often wondered how Eliot could be so patient and gentle with her pain. Now she understood that he knew how much it hurt because his own wounds ran so deep. She hoped that her presence was as soothing to him as his was to her.

Sophie ran her fingers across his forehead and gave him soft, meaningless, comforting words. He trembled and jerked under her touch and was pleading with someone named Rose.

“It's okay, sweetie. It's okay,” she murmured. “It's over. You're here with me.”

He began to quiet, and some of the tension left her own body. His distress always slashed through her chest like sharp knives. Sophie wished there were a way she could erase the terrible memories of his past. Of course, then he wouldn't be the same Eliot that she cared for so much. His life had made him the man he was the way her own life had crafted her.

That didn't stop her from wanting to ease his pain.

She knew his body so well that she felt the exact moment when his troubled sleep gave way to blissful, real, deep sleep. For just an instant, she bent and placed her forehead against his cheek.

“You're not that man anymore.”

She wasn't the same anymore, either. Sophie Devereaux was the name she used now, the one that had become the real her, but she had changed. Once, she had been a thief. Then she had been the one that made sure everyone was okay. Now she was both whole and broken in a way she never had been before. If not for Eliot, she wasn't sure where she would have ended up. It certainly wouldn't have been in control of her own life. And not this happy.

It surprised her sometimes that she was so happy. Despite the blindness. Despite the uncertainty. Despite really sharing with someone for the first time in her life. Of course, they'd never mentioned forever. Forever had always been a foreign concept to both of them. A grifter never really had a home, and a hitman couldn't afford to have ties. Leverage was the closest to permanent either of them had ever known. For now, what they had felt right, and it was good for the both of them. They had learned how to ease the ache of each other's half healed scars, and touching each other made the harsher realities fade. Sophie had no idea how long it would last. They were heading in the same direction, and their paths could part at any time, but if they didn't, if she and Eliot ended up going in the same direction for the rest of their lives, she wouldn't complain.

Sophie slid her hand down Eliot's body, feeling the firmness of his chest and the bumps and imperfections past fights had left on his skin. Everyone is wounded, he'd once told her, it was just that some wounds were easier to see than others. She wondered what damage she held inside herself that even she didn't know about. Her real self had been buried for so long that maybe she'd never know the true cost.

“Sophie,” Eliot mumbled, this time sounding content.

Sophie smiled and kissed his forehead before settling back down against him. She wrapped her arm around his waist and lay her cheek against his shoulder. Warmth and comfort seeped into her. Almost immediately, she began to relax towards sleep. Lying with him brought her the sweetest peace she'd ever known, even though he seemed to find so little peace himself. The nightmares always found him, but, as long as they were together, she would not let them win. 

It was obvious to her that he needed her as much as she needed him. They worked hard every day to face the blindness and the demons that haunted both of their pasts. Two wounded people who hurt less together.


End file.
